Komagata Maru Incident Pdf – Indian Modern History notes

The Komagata Maru incident involved a Japanese steamship, ‘Komagata Maru’ that sailed from Hong Kong, Shanghai, China to Yokohama, Japan and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the year 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India.

Out of all the passengers 24 were admitted to Canada, but the other 352 passengers were not allowed inside Canada, and the ship was forcefully returned to India.

The ‘Komagata Maru’ incident was widely cited at the time by Indian groups to highlight discrepancies in the Canadian immigration laws.

The inflamed passions in the wake of the incident were widely cultivated by the Indian revolutionary organisation, the ‘Ghadar Party’, to rally support for its aims.

In a number of meetings ranging from California in 1914 to the Indian diaspora, prominent Ghadarites including Barkatullah, Tarak Nath Das, and Sohan Singh used the incident as a rallying point to recruit members for the Ghadar movement, most notably in support of formulating plans to coordinate a massive uprising in India.